Why don't academics have kids?

Or more specifically, why don't academic librarians have kids?  This question probably sounds odd coming from me, given yesterday's post about all the pregnant women at these library conferences, but I've noticed a trend recently: very few academic librarians seem to have kids.


Why is that?  Most of the ones I know have been married for several years, and are creeping further and further into their thirties, so it can't be that they aren't ready.  Is it that they can't?  Are they all struggling with infertility like me?  Has this profession attracted a certain type of infertile woman who is than able to find support and camaraderie by being surrounded by others just like her? 


Or are they, like many women with high levels of education pushing back their family goals in lieu of their career goals (whether they'd like to or not)?  I would buy that if it was junior faculty members we were talking about, who had to concentrate on their doctoral program, dissertation & defense, and are now researching, publishing, teaching and serving their way toward tenure... but we're not talking about them.  Most of the academic librarians I know already have the job they want.  Or at least they have their foot in the door and are at a place where they plan to be for a long time before they can climb higher toward their ultimate goal. 


Maybe they don't want kids?  Maybe I'm a freak for being in a profession (or at least was in a profession and admire still hang out with my former colleagues) where I'm the only one who  likes children.  Maybe the rest of them found their niche in a place who accepts their pension for a childless life.  Maybe they just want to work and travel and have fun with their husbands and friends.


I asked a couple of them that I knew from my grad school days down here at this conference.  They argued with a few examples of academic librarians they knew that DID have kids...but one was older with school age children, the other had children in college, and the rest were men.  In the examples of the two women, I have know idea where they were in their careers when they got pregnant and had their children.  And the men certainly don't count.  Pregnancy and child rearing is NOT the same for the fathers, in any profession.  This is a conversation about motherhood and work.


I don't know, but it doesn't change how I feel.  I still want to be a mother more than anything.  I'd give up my career to be a mother in a heartbeat (though the way things are going, its looking more and more like I'll have to work until I die just to be able to afford to conceive my child!).


But it's just something I've noticed, because as we all know by know, all I ever think about is babies, and I often look for infertility in others where there is really none to see.  It is a weird place that my mind goes when I'm doing this, but I think it's human nature to compare ourselves to others and look for similar traits that we find in ourselves in others too.